Are you cool ... your temperature that is?

Lsbcal

Lsbcal

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Why this is happening is unclear, but the scientists suggest that improvements in sanitation and improved dental and medical care have reduced chronic inflammation, and the constant temperatures maintained by modern heating and air conditioning have helped lower resting metabolic rates. Today, a temperature of 97.5 may be closer to “normal” than the traditional 98.6.
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Wow, that is an interesting one.

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/well/live/body-temperature-2-0-do-we-need-to-rethink-whats-normal.html
 
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I couldn't read the article (paywall) but the "normal" human temperature was originally determined to be 37°C which was only a rough approximation. Someone converted that to 98.6°F and the addition of the decimal point made it seem like it was very precise. That was a misunderstanding that has persisted to the present day.

Actually, it varies quite a bit among people. My personal "normal" is 97.6°F, just as an example. That's been constant since I was a child.
 
braumeister said:
I couldn't read the article (paywall) but the "normal" human temperature was originally determined to be 37°C which was only a rough approximation. Someone converted that to 98.6°F and the addition of the decimal point made it seem like it was very precise. That was a misunderstanding that has persisted to the present day.

Actually, it varies quite a bit among people. My personal "normal" is 97.6°F, just as an example. That's been constant since I was a child.
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Thanks, I modified the link so it should work now.
 
delete
 
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braumeister said:
Not for me.
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Rats. Could you try your search engine with something like "new york times body temperature". I think it is generally available without paying.

I have a $4/month subscription to the NY Times. The health articles there are particularly interesting. But before I had a subscription I had just a login. And then I signed up for their weekly wellness summary which has links to the health articles. So that stuff should be generally available I think unless they changed it in recent months.
 
link works for me in google, launched it incognito as I don't have a sub. But most articles are free until the monthly limit of 10 or so?

I've always been on the low side, 96's. I'm never 98+ unless I'm sick.

Growing up in the UK we were always taught 98.4, so it struck me as odd when I moved to the US and it was 98.6 here. Never bothered to look up why though.
 
Am I Cool?

Cool as the other side of the pillow.

With apologies to the late Stuart Scott.
 
Usually about 98 even and here I thought it was the benefits of retirement.
 
Link works with Firefox.


So our bodies are now helping reduce global warming. :wiseone::LOL:
 
I'm amazed that people even know their temperature. I can't remember the last time I had my temperature taken. Probably indirectly by the thermal scanners at the airport during SARS. Just lucky I guess.
 
I just searched on the first sentence of the article and found multiple free sources, such as this one.

I'd seen the article a few days ago and was a bit surprised that it was even noteworthy that individuals have varying "normal" temperatures. And even your "normal" can vary quite a bit during the day and night.
 
Walt34 said:
I just searched on the first sentence of the article and found multiple free sources, such as this one.

I'd seen the article a few days ago and was a bit surprised that it was even noteworthy that individuals have varying "normal" temperatures. And even your "normal" can vary quite a bit during the day and night.
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To me the theory that the decline in average body temperatures is due to a reduction in inflammations through better diets, etc. is newsworthy.
 
Lsbcal said:
To me the theory that the decline in average body temperatures is due to a reduction in inflammations through better diets, etc. is newsworthy.
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Here's the original statistical work, https://elifesciences.org/articles/49555
It does refer to people using more anti inflammatories now than then, but brushes it aside as not the reason. I wonder about the more prevalent use of anti bacterial's , but that should show as only a certain percentage in the stats. The one I wonder about are the antibiotics fed to cattle and chickens us consuming them.
While working on a digital thermometer to read the outside temp, I wanted to see how it compared to other thermometers in the house. I took my under tongue temp with a mercury body temp meter 99.7*F, a digital body temp meter 99.0F, A k type digital meter sensor 98.2*F and the meter I bought to test outside temp 98.3*F.
Does anyone know what time it is?


btw; the meter I bought measured ice water at 0.2*F, seems pretty good
at accurate at near freezing. I didn't try boiling water.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSOI9Y4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
Lsbcal said:
To me the theory that the decline in average body temperatures is due to a reduction in inflammations through better diets, etc. is newsworthy.
Click to expand...


Here's the original statistical work, https://elifesciences.org/articles/49555
It does refer to people using more anti inflammatories now than then, but brushes it aside as not the reason. I wonder about the more prevalent use of anti bacterial's , but that should show as only a certain percentage in the stats. The one I wonder about are the antibiotics fed to cattle and chickens us consuming them.
While working on a digital thermometer to read the outside temp, I wanted to see how it compared to other thermometers in the house. I took my under tongue temp with a mercury body temp meter 99.7*F, a digital body temp meter 99.0F, A k type digital meter sensor 98.2*F and the meter I bought to test outside temp 98.3*F.
I'd like to have the most confidence in the mercury thermometer, but then I might be sick :-/



btw; the meter I bought measured ice water at 0.2*F, seems pretty

accurate at near freezing. I didn't try boiling water.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSOI9Y4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
I'm ~97.1, have been that way since I learned how to take my own temp.
But as a kid I went to school sick many times, as I "only" had a ~99.1 - .5 fever... "that's nothing, that's not a fever, you're going to school!". But it was really 100.6 - 101 adjusting for my low normal. No wonder I felt awful. The tyranny of 98.6!

Too late to do anything about it now. So I'll go on youtube and play the song. And substitute "97.1" for "98.6"

:mad: not mad, burning up with fever! Want a kiss? :-* :yuk:
 
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From my late 20's and beyond my normal temp is between 97.5 and 97.8. My current GF says it's my excess Neanderthal DNA. When annoyed, she refers to me as her " Dumb ass caveman ".
 
6miths said:
I'm amazed that people even know their temperature. I can't remember the last time I had my temperature taken. Probably indirectly by the thermal scanners at the airport during SARS. Just lucky I guess.
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The physician's assistant always takes my vitals before I see my doctor, at routine exams. He tells me what my temperature is, my blood pressure, my blood sugar, and so on, as he makes these measurements.

I like that he does that, because I don't have to ask.
 
I'm probably around that 97.5 number. I'll have to tell DW about this. All this time I thought I was just a wimp when I'd feel terrible and only have a temp of 99.5.
 
Mine is usually around 98.0. I remember my Mother telling me, back in ancient times, that "our family's temperatures always run cool" (meaning, below 98.6) and that even when sick, we rarely ran temperatures over 99 degrees. She certainly took our temperatures enough to know.

So I don't think it's a modern phenomenon. People vary, and always have.
 
W2R said:
The physician's assistant always takes my vitals before I see my doctor, at routine exams. He tells me what my temperature is, my blood pressure, my blood sugar, and so on, as he makes these measurements.

I like that he does that, because I don't have to ask.
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Likewise, a regular blood donor knows their normal temperature and blood pressure.

I'm in the upper 97s normally. Above 99 I feel bad. Above 100 is armegeddon. I only go there with something serious like the flu. Went to about 102 (blessedly briefly) during the H1N1 flu outbreak in 2009 and felt like I was going to die.
 
I'm about 97.5 normally but I'm always the coldest person in the room. Need heavy sweater etc when everyone is totally fine around me. If my temp rises to 98.5 or thereabouts ( if I eat a curry dish ) I'm much more comfortable. Anyone like that? Yes. Had my thyroid checked.
 
Don't forget a lot of people in the "old time" did not have potable water all the time, and were "forced" to drink local alcoholic beverages of the time. The body metabolizes alcohol differently through the liver and raises body temperatures.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/98-6-d...average-any-more-11579257001?mod=hp_lead_pos5

There is also a factor mentioned in the WSJ article on the same topic that the precision of the thermometers is unknown, a subject I mentioned in another thread last year.
 
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